I picked up that it generally goes up with each new village you convert, and it doubles when the vilage is destroyed, but does anybody know exactly what goes into calculating the influence cost? I had assumed it was just one flat fee that keeps increasing by a set amount, but just found out that's not the case.



As an example, right now I'm choosing between about 6 potential villages to convert, and they all have different influence costs to convert, ranging from 242 up to 407, with many different values in between.



I wondered if it mattered how many villages from that particular Minor Faction I'd already converted, but many of these villages are all from Minor Factions I only have 1 village from, yet still have different costs. The only pattern I'm noticing right now is that the 2 higher priced villages are both inside regions owned by other factions (but don't have identical costs).

As far as I know it's just a flat cost that increases with each converted village. It should also be adjusted for game speed and whether the village is destroyed or intact (or possibly even rebuilt).



If there is some other modifier it's probably based on the population of the converted village; bribe is affected in the same way.



--



I couldn't find it in the xml offhand, but when I saw it last, it was a pretty simple formula.

I think pacified villages cost less than non-pacified, IIRC.

As far as I know, these are the factors influencing Conversion costs:

- Amount of your Converted villages



- Village "status"









- Village region status:









So the cheapest one is a Pacified village in a neutral region. The most expensive one an annihilated village in a region of another player. The questions you could still have are whether the annihilation or region ownership increase the Conversion cost more - dunno how it is between

Hmm these basic rules make sense, but there's definitely more factors than just "destroyed vs. not" and "region owner" at play here. I've got multiple pacified, undestroyed villages in neutral territory, all with different costs. I'll try to grab some screenshots when I can later, and see if the village population is the key.

OK! As is sometimes the case in games like this, when I couldn't find an exact answer online, it was time for some !!SCIENCE!! After a good bit of saving, reloading, and screenshots I think I've figured it out, but I'll spare you the messy details as most of it was just confirming that certain numbers DON'T change. Unless otherwise specified, all testing was done on Normal Speed, Serious Difficulty. Here are the results:



Things specifically tested for, and confirmed as non-factors:

• The current population garrisoned in the village
• Whether the village was pacified via Bribe or a Parley quest
• Your current Diplomatic relations with the empire who controls the region the village is in (at least Peace, Cold War, War, and Truce are the same, not tested in Alliance)
• The number of villages specifically from the same Minor Faction which you've already Converted
• The distance between the region the village is in and your home region
• The ownership of any regions bordering the region containing the village
• Whether or not the village currently has spawned any Roaming Armies
• The Game Speed setting (tested on Fast, Normal, Slow)
• The Game Difficulty setting (tested on Newbie, Normal, Serious)
  
  

Based on all my testing, the following is what I've confirmed to affect the Conversion cost, and as far as I can tell, these are the ONLY factors affecting Conversion cost. Of course, I stand to be corrected if someone else knows something I don't and can explain how the numbers get to be this way instead.



Conversion cost factors:

• Conversion carries a Base Cost associated with the particular Minor Faction you are trying to convert, varying between 21 and 26, as listed below.
• This Base Cost is added again onto the Conversion cost for every Converted village in your empire, regardless of which Minor Faction they are from. E.G. if the base cost is 25 for a Kazanji village with 0 Converted villages, it will be 275 when you have 10 Converted villages (25 + 25x10).
• If a village is destroyed, the price is roughly, but not exactly, multiplied by 2x
• If a village is in a region belonging to another Empire, the price is multiplied by roughly 1.5x (These both seem like they could be rounding errors or something? Not sure...)
  
  

Base Cost according to Minor Faction:

• 21 - Bos, Ceratan, Hurnas, Sisters of Mercy
• 22 - Delvers, Nidya, Urces
• 23 - Eyeless Ones, Erycis
• 24 - Silics, Geldirus, Dorgeshi
• 25 - Jotus, Kazanji, Gauran
• 26 - Haunts
  
  

Conclusion:



So, in hindsight the system is fairly simple, which may explain why it took me so long to figure it out as I was trying to factor in a bunch of stuff which was irrelevant :P Anyway I guess other than not being affected by Game Speed, nothing really shocking here, though it could be a consideration when scouting out various regions. For example, converting some regions with a bunch of Ceratan and Hurnas will cost you ~20% less Influence than an equivalent area filled with Haunts and Kazanji, which could be significant early-game.

Xen0n,

Thanks a lot for explaining this. It will be very helpful for future Cultist playthroughs.



I would even suggest creating a guide and putting it in proper section of the forum.